What: Multichannel Network MiTú has closed a licensing agreement with AOL to syndicate Hispanic video content over a wide array of AOL Hispanic digital properties.
Why it matters: Online Video is one of the hottest inventory pieces in the overall and U.S. Hispanic ad market. Different major players are positioning themselves to best provide advertisers relatively scarce online video inventory.
MiTú, a multi-channel network (MCN) exclusively dedicated to Latino content, announced that it has closed a content licensing agreement with AOL across all of its digital platforms, including The Huffington Post, AOL and its Hispanic content network, Voces. The agreement will allow MiTú to syndicate its original and partner produced content to AOL in both English and Spanish. AOL, particularly after the purchase of Adap.TV has strengthened substantially its position in the online video advertising market with its video ads reaching more than half of all Americans online (comScore Video Metrix – Ads only).
Content Verticals
Regarding the type of content verticals that MiTú will be providing video content to AOL, Charlie Echeverry , Chief Revenue Officer at MiTú tells Portada that they will be “Lifestyle and male variety as well as a variety of subcategories, from Food to Health to Home, etc…”. According to Echeverry, “The content may be available on other properties and is available as of last month on Univision’s digital verticals as well.”Echeverry adds that while the AOL deal is international the main emphasis will be put on the U.S..
What is the nature of the deal. Fee paid per content ad revenue share deal or both? Echeverry answers that he cannot share specific terms of the deal, “but both AOL and MiTú will benefit from broad distribution of the content and the associated monetization that occurs around that distribution.” He adds that either AOL or MiTú may sell advertising into the content with certain provisions.
New Round of Funding?
Market insiders know that MiTú is currently negotiating a new a round of funding, Neither Charlie Etcheverry nor MiTú s Chief Creative Officer Doug Greif were able to answer a question about this at this time. MiTú is currently backed by The Chernin Group LLC (TCG) along with other investors including: Allen DeBevoise, Chairman, CEO and co-founder of Machinima; Advancit Capital, a venture capital firm founded by Shari Redstone and Jason Ostheimer; Quincy Smith of the internet and media-focused merchant bank Code Advisors; and Juan Cristóbal Ferrer of Ferrer Comunicación in Mexico.
